A time for good-bye

Very early this morning Reed and I said good-bye to each other once again. This time I am sending him off to fight in Afghanistan. All I can do is pray for his safety. Reed has spent many hours in the last several weeks telling about where he is going and what they are doing to help assure me that he will be safe. Words can't describe what it's like kissing the one you love good-bye not only for a year but knowing that they are going to war. I have no idea what the next year entails for us, but I'm confident we'll make it through.

It's been a while...

I tried posting this several weeks ago, but I guess it didn't work so here it is...

So many things have happened since I was last able to post. Since there is so much I'll start with the Reader's Digest version and then go into more depth later. Reed made it home safely the first of March. Then after a change of plans we spent our block leave here in Fairbanks and in Anchorage. Then it was back to work for both of us unfortunately.
I have never been so happy to wake up at 2 am as I was on March 4th! I was up at 2 to go pick up my husband from base finally! It was a long month with him gone. I'm an totally dreading deployment, but know that we can make it through it. Soon after he got home it was my birthday. Reed got me my mixer that I have been dreaming of for years! I have to say...I love it! I really think everyone needs one! My mixer is also different from everyone that I have seen though because it has a clear bowl and not the metal one. That makes it all the more special to me.
Then it was block leave. Unfortunately we spent the first week of our two week leave spending every afternoon on base trying to get his paycheck figured out. Then we headed down to Anchorage. Although I was super excited to see a Target, I was overall disappointed with Anchorage. I don't really know why, I think it's just cause I'm so used to our small town of Fairbanks that Anchorage was too overwhelming for me. Another reason I don't think that I liked it too much is because there were so many things that I wanted to do that were closed for the season. So I'm sure that I will like it better when I go down there this summer. After we got home from Anchorage we started to work on a crazy project of mine. I have wanted to get a shoe bench in our entry way to help contain all our shoes and such and to help it make much more organized. I was going crazy with the unorganized manner of our shoes. After many difficulites we finally finished the bench. It looks so good in our hallway! We then set to a couple of other projects. Reed made me a shoe rack for our closet and I made an end table I think we have learned a new hobby for us to do together. We love working in the garage together.

Finally.....a bed!

The big news for this week is that we have our household goods finally! Wednesday morning the moving company arrived and had the crates unloaded by noon! After that Toria and I set to unpacking everything. It was a huge mess! Anyone that knows me knows that I like my house to be very neat! So believe me when I say this place was a total disaster! I took pictures and I'll have to figure out how to post them on here so that I can show everyone, but I'm going to wait until everything is unpacked and decorated before I do that so everyone can see the before and after. Toria and I are so excited because our house is finally starting to look like a home! We are no longer living somewhere that looks like a bachelor pad! Toria has been a lifesaver too! We decided to wash all the kitchen stuff and clothes because they had been in storage for several months. Boy was that a task! She set to work washing the kitchen stuff and I started on the laundry. Unfortunately, I had to go back to work on Thursday so it's taking me a while to get through everything, but she has washed everything in the kitchen and put it all away! It's amazing! Our kitchen it fully stocked! My first priority on Wednesday was our bedroom though. I like to decorate the bedroom and get it all set up first because I think it's relaxing to have it all decorated and pretty when I go to bed and wake up. Unfortunately, our bedroom furniture was bigger than the room so our dresser had to go to another room, but with our bed, both nightstands and the addition on a small bookshelf, our room looks great! It felt so good to finally sleep in a real bed again! We moved into the house on 21 Dec 2010 and were sleeping on an airbed until Monday at which point I had to turn in the airbed and I could either sleep on a pallet on the floor or the couch. The airbed worked fine and all, but I'll just say that our bed is amazing! Last night Toria and I hung the pictures and such on the walls. We were so excited! Our house is really looking good! I was also able to contain the unpacked mess to two rooms upstairs! I was impressed with how everything survived the move. When it got here I was shocked at how poorly everything was packed! So I was very impressed with the minimal amount of things that were either damaged or broken. We actually had only three things broken, and about 5 things damaged. Not too bad really. The biggest bummer though was that they broke one of the legs on our couch. We had planned on putting our couch in one of the empty rooms upstairs with the other TV and making it a TV room. However with the couch leg broken we had to improvise. We still made it a TV room, but instead of a couch we put the cushions from the couch on the floor in the shape of a couch. Hopefully the inspector will come look at it soon and decide if they can fix it or if they will replace it. We'll see. I doubt it will be too quick, mainly because I have learned how the Army works.

So I never made it back to finish this last week, oops. So we have had our furniture for over a week now. It is so nice!  I really wish Reed was here to enjoy it all with me! It was nice not having him here at first so I could unpack and put everything away at my own pace, but now I'm ready for him to be home! Oh well, he'll be home soon enough. Anyways, this week hasn't been too bad really. We are really busy at the clinic, which is awesome. Usually it takes several months to build up a clinic to where you are really full and busy, but not us. We are already booked full almost everyday! It's amazing! I totally love working in the clinic setting and don't regret my decision to leave the hospital one bit. The weather this week took a turn for the bitterly cold earlier this week. Tuesday and Wednesday we had lows between -40 and -45. It was crazy! Now today we are positive 10. How crazy is that. I guess that is about all the news for this week.

Weekly Update

So I know that the last post, but my goal was to write on here every Sunday to give everyone an update on the past week. So I'm back on track this weekend, and ready for an update. Unfortunately there was not much that happened this week and the few things that did happen weren't that exciting. Anyways, work for me is still great! I honestly can say that I love my job. The clinic is slowly picking up business, in fact to be a brand new clinic with a new physician to the area we are actually pretty busy! The down side to that is that right now we are getting patients that other doctors don't want basically. The vast majority of the patients that we saw this past week were patients who have had their pain/problems for 2+ years, who have been to other ortho drs who had blown them off! Dr. Boucher is still amazing! She is one of those doctors that loves teaching! It's great! I have an amazing manager and such too. The clinic is actually a fairly large clinic, but it has a small clinic feeling. If I need anything I know that I can call almost anyone in the clinic for help! I love it! The only other thing that really happened is that Reed left for California. He had to leave Friday night. I hate having to send him away! I can't believe that it's already time for him to leave for NTC. He had to leave a couple days before everyone because of his job, which was the hardest thing. However, he is safely in California right now. I was able to talk with him briefly last night and he told me that he really missed Alaska. He said that the area of California that they are in is a lot like Lubbock, dusty and windy, and he really missed the beauty of Alaska. Hopefully this next month will go by quickly. The final item of news is that our household goods are supposed to be delivered Wednesday! I am so excited to finally have all our stuff up here and to finally be done living out of boxes and a suitcase! The best part of Reed leaving though is the cleaning frenzy that follows! Yesterday I cleaned the first floor and our bedroom! I don't think it's been this clean since we moved in! Today the plan is to finish the second floor and start working on shoveling out the driveway in preparation for Wednesday...guess I best get going

Fun recent adventures!

We have had such a fun filled weekend! But first I'll start with this past week. So my job is amazing! Dr  Boucher is one of the best doctors that I have met! She has such a great personality! I feel so blessed because she is not one of the stereotypical doctors with the "complex." We started seeing patients this past Thursday and let me just say that the people here in Fairbanks are crazy! I heard some of the craziest stories in the past two days. I thought you heard/saw crazy things in the hospital, but boy was I wrong! The other exciting news that we have for this week is that we finally got me a car! We tried the whole single car thing, but with us working the same basic hours and such it was not working out. So we started looking and found the perfect car! Our new car is a 2006 Ford Focus! It is perfect and meets all of our requirements and as an added bonus it has auto start (which is incredibly nice in Alaska)! So as for our weekend it started off with me driving my new car on a lake and ended at the hot springs. So Saturday we decided to go for a scenic drive since we now have a car that gets great gas mileage. Reed has been wanting to go ice fishing for several weeks now and had been told about a place where you can rent everything that you need. So we went to find that place and ended up driving my new car onto a lake! I never ever in all my life thought I would drive on a lake but alas I did. Good new, no cracking of the ice occurred and me and the car survived the lake trip! That night Reed tried some new ab exercises with me and I somehow ended up with an incredibly painful lower back. So Sunday since my back was still hurting Reed decided that we should go to the hot springs because that would help my back. Really I think he just wanted to go and had finally found the perfect excuse to go! Anyways, it was awesome! I remember going to a hot spring of sorts and hated it because of the smell...now I loved it. I guess it's something that only adults truly enjoy! I didn't really notice much of a smell at all. The most shocking thing for me was how little I was wearing in single digit temperatures and how cold I never got! Not even when we went out there initially! Crazy huh? The first time we went in to the rock lake I had left my hair down on accident and Reed said that my hair had turned white! I guess it was frosted over? Anyways, he found that really "cool," I just wish I could have seen it. We ended up "soaking" twice. It felt so so good! We also enjoyed a very scenic drive out there. Then unfortunately came Monday and back to work for me...Reed was lucky and got that day off! The only bad news we have to report really is that while he was off on Monday Reed had to take the truck back into the shop! It turns out that when we had to have the car re-winterized we took it to the wrong place, even though people recommended it! They totally messed up everything! We initially took it in because it kept tripping the breaker on the outlet outside. However when the mechanic investigated the reason for the short he discovered that our car was close to burning to the ground. When the stupid people re-winterized it they basically overloaded one of the plugs and had put silicone on the ends of the plugs when they put them together. Well, silicone conducts electricity...so that was really a brilliant  move huh? Our trusty mechanic told us that he thought that there were actually flames at the plugs due to the amount of damage on them! So, he gave us the burned plug and we are headed there tomorrow to show them what they did! I am so furious! Not only did we pay them over $200 to winterize the truck, but now we have paid over $900 to fix all their mistakes! So frustrating! Anyways, back to happy fun adventures! Tonight Reed finally convinced me to go swimming with him. They do swim PT at least once a week, especially when it gets much below -15, and he is really starting to enjoy it. So I finally reluctantly agreed to go with him tonight. Let me tell you something...they did something tricky to their pool and made the water thicker than when I was a kid! I felt like I was trying to swim in jello! No joke! We were beat after only 30 minutes...lame I know. The best part was though when we left. So I totally didn't think to bring a hair dryer with me. The hot spring had 2 hair dryers there to use, and it never crossed my mind to take one to the pool. Well, the trip from the building to the car took maybe a minute, at most, and by the time we got into the car my hair was frozen! It was awesome! I have never had that experience before. I guess that about covers it all for now. Reed will be leaving sometime soon for California for training. I'm not looking forward to him leaving at all! I'm definitely going to miss his messy butt! However, between my job and church and our roommate I don't think it will be too terrible. Plus our stuff should be getting here soon!

First Week Down!

So I started my new job in a clinic Monday. I was so nervous & anxious about it Sunday night. I feel very comfortable in the hospital setting, but I had no idea about working in a clinic. Well, Monday came and I made it through the day very overwhelmed! After going through a very brief orientation one of the managers there gave me a tour of the whole building! (If this sounds like no big deal, let me tell you it's 4 floors of many hallways!) She also introduced me to almost all the doctors, nurses and other managers that worked in the building as well. She then showed me where my suite was going to be, but we were not able to really go in because the construction crews and such were still working on getting it all painted. Then she took me to meet Carol, my preceptor. Let me tell you Carol is one different duck! She is a very "seasoned" nurse that has a terrible attitude about everything! She is always cussing about one thing or another. Anyways, she only works until 1545 every day and I am supposed to work until 1700. So I would get a break from her every afternoon when I took a lunch (she didn't take lunch, which is why she got to leave so early), and then again after she left in the afternoon. Monday I went back up to the manager's office that I was with earlier that day. We tried to do many different things on the computer, but  none my log ins and such were ready, so instead I started working on something else and ended up having a great conversation time with her and eventually her husband. It really worked out quite well I think. Anyways, the next two afternoons Catherine and I went and worked to get everything in my suite set up and ready to go.  Catherine is the nurse in the surgery suite right next to mine. We really hit if off and I'm so excited that we will be working together. While in family practice during the  mornings I would work on trying to figure out the EMR and such, so I wouldn't be 100% lost when we started seeing patients next Thursday. I actually was able to get it down and was able to make phone calls, room patients and everything by myself! It was such a great feeling! Carol told me several times that I was doing a great job, which I learned from another one of the nurses there is saying a lot! As I said before Carol is one of those nurses your nursing instructors warn you about in school and so for her to say that I was doing great is huge! Anyways, I was finally able to meet my doctor on Thursday! Dr. Boucher is very nice! I'm so thankful to have such a friendly doctor to work with. She came up a went through the equipment and some of the supplies that we had already and then looked through the catalogs and told us what else she would need or wanted. It's so crazy to me having to start a new clinic like this. Catherine and I totaled up just part of the list of things that we had to get for her and were shocked by the amount it came to! Working 5 days a week is definitely a different thing for me. I was feeling it Friday morning. However, I completely love getting off so early in the day! I also love getting to leave at 1700 rather than having to wait for someone to come and give report and all that jazz. I love that I am home by 1730 everyday and that I have so much time to spend with Reed every night! I have no doubt that I made the right decision going from the hospital acute care setting to the clinic setting. The cut in pay is 100% worth it for me right now! This job, so far at least, is also tons less stressful than the hospital! I can't wait to start seeing patients and to have everything clean and organized. The suite that we are in for Orthopedics was last used really by a podiatrist about 2-3 years ago. He left on a whim so there are tons of supplies and such left over from him. Catherine and I have worked for the last several afternoons to get all of the supplies out of the rooms and laid out for Dr. Boucher to be able to easily look at them and tell us what she wants and doesn't want, and then tell us what she wants in each room so that we can get the rooms set up for patients. We were able to get it all laid out by noon yesterday, but Dr. Boucher was not able to make it back to the office yesterday afternoon, so when I left yesterday all the supplies were laying everywhere and the clinic is a complete disaster! I guess that is all the big news we have to offer for now! Hope everyone is having a great Saturday!

Yay!

I finally found out when I will start my new job! I start....tomorrow! I'm so excited! Sitting around the house all day while Reed was at work was great for relaxing and all, but I'm so ready to start working. I have felt so unproductive for the last month since I wasn't working and there really was no housework or anything that needed to be done. I'm very nervous about starting tomorrow though. This will be my first new job really since I became a nurse. I feel like I'm starting all over because I don't know the doctor or anything about working in a clinic. However, I'm so excited to learn. Another huge plus is that the clinic has computer charting! Finally!! I just hope I catch onto it quickly. I'm also super stoked about my new work hours! I finally work normal hours and get to spend a good amount of time every night with my husband! I'll let everyone know how it goes if not tomorrow then definitely by the end of the week.